Ebene and Ooli pups

The pups are 2 weeks old, moving around far too fast already and now they can see where they are going.

Puppy News

On the 4th April, a very clever Bonnie (Novaforesta Dora) gave birth to 14 pups.
8 girls and 6 boys, all black with a few marked with white which must be a relief for Julie, Bonnies owner as that will help identifying the 'gang'.
All pups and Mum are doing fine.
I believe this is a record number for barbets in a litter, so its good to have another 1st in the UK.
Must not forget Eton as he of course is the sire and it takes two to tango.
In the space of two weeks, barbet numbers are now over 40 in the Uk and one of my aims for the breed successfully accomplished  as Bonnie is a pup from Bepop and Eton, a pup from Betsy.

Bonnie (novaforesta Dora) ready to burst!

A lovely picture of Bonnie looking rather full of puppies.
We have only a few days left to wait. As soon as I hear, I will let you know the good news.
Betsy and Bepop are playing it cool over becoming Grandmas.
Should we take bets on how many pups are waiting to be born, as Bonnie was one of a litter of 13, It could be a large one.
I am keeping everything crossed it all goes well.
I know nothing, but I reckon at least 11 pups, 6 males and  5 females and colourwise 2 browns, 5 solid blacks, 4 black with white bits. How wrong will I be?......probably 100% as no one knows till they come out but I am having fun guessing.

Puppies learning to swim

This is a beautiful example of how puppies should be introduced to water

7 week old puppies

Not every breeder is lucky enough to have streams,rivers or lakes on their doorstep, and you cannot take young puppies to popular areas where they will meet other alien dogs.

But this video shows the ideal way and its a pleasure to watch, I have to admit that seeing waterdog puppies in swimming pools with life jackets ( because its deep water)  just doesn't appeal in comparison to a natural approach.

Barbet Puppies in the UK at long last.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I went as a friend with Annette to pick up her Canadian barbet from France.
We had such a lot of laughs over a mad 48 hours and Ebene was a darling from the start, she travelled without a problem and like both my girls accepted the transition of owners so well.
Yesterday she gave birth to 6 pups, as you all know the father is Ooli (Novaforesta Dudley). A fantastic day for the UK barbet as we have had a far too long a gap with no puppy photos and chat.
Have I mentioned that 2 of the pups are particolours, this is a first for the UK, so it adds another dimension to watching these pups grow. In another 2 weeks, more puppy news as Bonnie is growing larger every day, will she beat Bepops record of 12 pups.

Health tests for the barbet online

This is a start, not all are online but I am working on it

http://services.thekennelclub.org.uk/a7230035efe349eb8f3ef894bc6e6d66.healthtest

Betsy is recovering.

Poor Betsy was attacked yesterday by a terrier type dog.
The attack was totally unprovoked, Betsy,Bepop and Bob were on leads and the dog appeared suddenly and attacked without a warning, it just launched itself at Betsys face and refused to let go. Thank goodness for her hairy face, as this dog meant business.
To make matters worse, the owner who had been walking her dog whilst driving her car!!!!!!! was screaming ''kick him'' which worked in the end, although once removed from Betsy, he then attacked Bob.
 Bepop had the sense to slip her collar and so she removed herself from the scene.

Sadly it will have affected Betsy, so we will make sure that she meets lots of nice small dogs. Bobby on his walk today, was slightly more reserved than normal with other dogs, but as he has a brain the size of a pea, he will be back to normal soon. Bepop was definately scared when dogs appeared suddenly today as she came back to my side,so she will also need to meet some nice dogs. So yesterday was a rough day for the dogs, but they will get over it and hopefully forget it, something that my poodle has never ever been able to do, he has never forgotten which dogs have attacked him in the past. Poodles bear grudges, lets hope barbets don't.